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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a Whitechapel Six}

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, constrained by a sentence limit (high and low) of six, there are worse ways to spend the remaining time you have on earth.

Previously…

Prompt word:

LACE

The sun was slow to rise in Whitechapel; night’s damp fog convincing the universal symbol of renewal and hope there was no rush and, even if god had a plan, it did not include the people drawn to the Order of Lilith’s soup kitchen, currently located on Thrawl Street three doors in from Commercial Street.

Our newest acolytes, as acolytes do, milled about the interior of the former dry storage facility, some looking sincere, others certain of their value to the Order and a handful trying to avoid scrutiny; I smiled in identification with that last group and waited for Brother Abbott to arrive and provide a sense of meaningful purpose.

The Reverend Mother had been as direct as I would expect, “Brother Abbott has returned from abroad and will resume his duties as Headmaster,” I was expecting this and showed no reaction, “Do not celebrate the rearrangement of duties too quickly, Brother Anselm, the Order has need of your skills in other areas of our Mission;” her smile was a cypher but I knew better than to speak.

Now, standing at the far end of the long, high-ceiling room that combined a kitchen with donated tables and chairs to create a refuge for as many of the poor of East London as were able to stand in line for what might be their only hot meal of the day, I heard an approaching rumble of laughter, orders and advice.

Brother Abbott directed the acolytes in their duties, a maestro calling out instructions to those assigned the preparation of the main fare, soup and bread,

John: 1-12 People! Jesus had to change water into a grape and alcohol beverage…. all I ask, while you stir your boiling cauldrons, is to whisper a prayer, ‘hearty beef’, the better for our guests that they may find sustenance… surely you can imitate our Savior.”

The line in from Thrawl Street moved with the determined forward shuffle of the starving, heads still bowed from a night in a two penny hangover; many showing a necklace of bruised blood vessels on their throats, the result of slipping from a protective arm while in the sleep of the exhausted.

 

 

 

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [an Ian Devereaux Six]

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, constrained by a sentence limit (high and low) of six, there are worse ways to spend the remaining time you have on earth.

Previously…

Prompt word:

LACE

“Fuckin’ Devereaux, you really kill me sometimes, you know that? Spend half as much time in the world out here,” Lou waved his ever-present cigar in my direction, pretty much organized crime’s version of a bishop’s benediction, “As you do in that giant brain of yours;” more telling of the man seated in the last booth on the Lounge side of the Bottom of the Sea Strip Club & Lounge was that he never, for even a second, broke eye contact with me; “you might find yourself less in need rescuing from time-travel hitmen lacin’ your double latte, frappa-fuckin’-chinos with god knows what.”

And, as any zoologist, psychologist or criminologist will advise that for certain forms of life, establishing eye contact is a no-win strategy, this group includes but is not limited to: crocodiles, wolves, polar bears and Great White sharks.

Fortunately for me, Lou Caesare chose to laugh and, like the sounds of the above cited predators, it combined the best parts of defiance of an innately hostile world, triumph over adversaries and a simple reminder of how short life can be.

“And not for nothin’ if your predicament had caused my hostess,” the Owner of the Bottom of the Sea had this thing that I could never figure out, maybe it was just knowing the other person or their routines, but when he mentioned Diane’s name, she looked back at us, despite being at the front entrance at her station, “…Mz Florence Nightingale to be… inconvenienced in any way, you and I would be having a more private conversation;”

I turned in time to see Diane telegraph a scolding smile to Lou that, for anyone else in the city, would come in second to ‘punch the shark on the nose, they hate that and will leave you alone’.

*

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Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

How to Employ the (Alternative) Perspective (of) the Wakefield Doctrine?

Sorry, Trick Question.

The one thing we avoid like a sick metaphor is the Trick Question.

(Of course, there is the Everything Rule to contradict us. As it requires: all three personality types indulge/do/engage in the use of Trick Questions. The nature and character of this form of entrapment* is a reflection of the individual’s personal reality.)

But Time is running out.

Sixes to write for the Six Sentence Story. Be sure to get your ‘friends’ to go there and read and comment and such. We’d suggest you tell ’em to participate with their own Six, but, given that most of your immediate, i.e. within short reach, friends are either relatives or rogers (with a scattering of scotts)… not so likely. But as you know, that is the way of (your) world. After all, you didn’t decide what kind of world/who populates it, right?

lol (hey! look! the Reader next to you, their thought balloons! ‘Sorry, you’ve over-reached. No one pre-determines their parents‘ Yeah, we get that…roger.

the thing of it is, the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective that, like the aforementioned thought balloons, is an insight in to the minds of the people around you. pretty cool, no?

We’re  sensing a certain skittishness among our Herd Member brethren. Would suck that a body could think outside the group. Be fricken’ chaos, would it not?

ok… will stop playin’ with you. (that was our scottian secondary havin’ some cruel fun)

Damn! A legit ending for today’s post!!

scotts are cruel, rogers are mean and clarks are heartless!

So, RePrint, anyone?

Another Holiday! Can you spot the clarks, scotts and rogers?! the Wakefield Doctrine shows you how!

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

We are beginning a weekend. In this writer’s culture it is a major Holiday, (the) Memorial Day Weekend. It is also what we refer to as a ‘gateway holiday’, it’s preliminary enticements…it’s ‘harmless buzz‘, if you will includes:

  • Indianapolis 500 car race…33 cars drive 500 miles by turning left on a 2.5 mile ovular track, while many people are watching from behind steel-reinforced wire fences
  • First Day of Summer…sort of, technically the first day of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is June 21, but given the value of knowing Summer has started… it will do
  • scotts seize the meteorological opportunity to wear as little clothing as possible
  • rogers look forward to 3 months of what amounts to ‘groups synchronized fun’, aka picnics and cookouts!
  • clarks enjoy Summer, if for no other reason than given the sheer volume of the fun, some is bound to get on them
  • …even though it is Summer, we will be catching up with our 3 Job Seekers, ‘the clarklike guy, Emily, and ‘that scottian fella’
  • we will be visiting Fort Worth, Texas in the middle of June! If you live there and need a Wakefield Doctrine Tee shirt, be sure to let us know
  • if we are on the road for business we know that a Treaty of Tordesillas Road Trip will be part of the trip

Memorial Day Weekend Contest!!  Send us your favorite activity that involves one of the other personality types and why you enjoy it! (..if you are a clark  then your fun with a scott or a roger, if you are a scott….etc)

(what? promised to show the Readers what?  damn!! that’s right we did…shit, thought I was done for the day!…hold on, hold on, they might still be listening to the music vid… music from a car commercial?!? you’re kidding, tell me you’re kidding… )

So how do you spot the three personality types in the Summer Holiday Season?

  • follow the trail of empty charcoal lighter fluid cans… the guy standing over the grill with a match yelling, “hey kids wanna see something cool?” … this is your scottian personality type.

  • the fellow with the chefs apron, barbecue utensil tool belt who is standing in the doorway of the house looking at the outdoor temperature dial saying, “well honey, for the best tasting steak, the temperature/humidity index really should be no more than…” this is your rogerian personality type

  • the person putting the food that the guests brought in bowls and serving trays saying, “no, I don’t mind…sure you can take this out to the patio, I’ll just stay here and get a start on the dishes” this is your clarklike personality type

  • the person standing at the picnic table, keeping everything covered with saran wrap, closing the tupperware lids and saying, “no, you cannot go swimming, it has only been 40 minutes” this is your rogerian personality type

  • the person sitting in the chair, watching the volleyball game who seems eager to play but every time someone leaves the game, is heard to say, ” nah…won’t don’t you get  glenn..he really is good at this” this is your clarklike personality type

  • the person taking off her clothing by the poolside who can be heard (but not seen because of the crowd around her), “I hope this bathing suit is not too revealing, I just bought it and haven’t had a chance to wear it anywhere” this is your scottian personality type

* See?!!? Right there! There was a choice of a multiple of three cinnamons (yum!) in that last sentence. We could’ve had a pretty good shot at telling you the predominant worldview of the author entirely on the basis of their choice of (whatever the technical term for a noun-stand-in that entrapment is), in this context. ‘ceptin for the fact that everyone knows the Curator is a clark (with a significant secondary scottian aspect.)

 

 

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the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘… on a Tuesday that would be Monday’

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

We’ve approached this particular theme/topic/’the Doctrine says…’ before.

…We interrupt this vaguely formed post (how if Wednesday was a sibling then Tuesday would obviously be Cinderella*) to bring you the following RePrint. cai and Misky, (of our horde of Reader), might not have heard the story told in typical clarklike style of story-telling**. For that matter, maybe Mimi… (nah, she would have intuited it from, like, the second Doctrine post). Well, for what it’s worth, here is the Origin Story of everyone’s favorite off-the-books personality theory.

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “… so what, exactly, did you see, that day in the music store?”

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks scotts and rogers)

Today we come to the conclusion (and conclusions) of our re-telling of the origin of the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers.

New Readers? the Wakefield Doctrine offers a perspective on our world(s) and the people who make it up. Starting with the idea, the notion, the ‘let’s imagine for a second that‘ we’re all born with the potential to experience the world in one of three quite distinct ways and then proposing that our natural efforts to learn to deal with, develop strategies to contend with, create a personality suited to the condition that we, still tiny, little babies, must engage, results in the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine:

  1. clark (the Outsider) forever apart from, always searching for the information that the other two personality types obviously were taught, moving through the shadows both in broad daylight and clutching night
  2. scott (the Predator) never resting, never deprived, asking only to be free to chase desires and live as a member of a pack in which one’s place, in this necessarily vertical arrangement, carries not the slightest value judgement on the individual
  3. roger (the Herd Member) the epitome of social Man, connected to all that matters and accentuating all that does not, the world is a beautifully, (and sometimes insidiously), crafted machine for the world of Men and Women to explore, map, organize and subjugate.

We all move through one, (and only one), of these three worlds. We retain the potential, the atrophied urges to think, act or feel as would the two other worldviews, but we are of one world. Once we accept that, (in ourselves and, at arms length, in others), we are better equipped to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool to appreciate how we relate ourselves to the world around us.

If you’re just joining us, this, as we said above, is the conclusion of the origin of the Wakefield Doctrine. The first installment set up the scene and introduced the players, (Click Here Part 1). The second installment bring the action to a climax, moving the people, (and concepts), into position, (Click Here Part 2) and today we have the denouement *.

The brass bell over the door signaled the ‘all clear’ and the world was almost the same as when it announced the arrival of the man with the dual cassette dubbing deck.

Scott gave no indications that he was aware of any change to the world. (Of course, he didn’t. The sun was still at the right point on its arc for the time of day and the earth was still staying beneath our feet.)

I felt the change. I knew there was a change.

Yet even now, forty can’t-be-that-many-years later, I struggle to articulate my state of mind. Close to the feeling you get when, one second before you scrape the 5/8ths-complete jigsaw puzzle into the box and go do something fun, you pick up a piece without thinking and it is the piece that not only fits, but joins several, seemingly disparate pieces, creating more of a whole.

Perhaps the most useful moral of our little story of cassette recorders and music stores is more than, ‘This is a key to understanding the world’. Perhaps it is to accept, (and build upon), the idea that, ‘This key is a proof of the world being understandable’.

 

* that is such a cool word, like speaking rhetoric with a French accent… at least, the clark within hopes**

** slightly advanced level Doctrine: while we all have one (and only one) predominant worldview, we never lose the potential of ‘the other two’. And, …and! for reasons not yet understood, some of us develop more significant secondary (and tertiary) aspects than others. Example: I am a clark. I have a significant secondary scottianaspect. Everything in these pages, on this blog, is evidence of that. Why do I say that? ’cause if I was a clark with negligible secondary (and tertiary) aspects I’d be quite satisfied writing these posts in my head (maybe sharing them with a very close friend). And I sure as shit would think twice about whipping out a word like ‘denouement’.

*

*go ahead, bring this back to us as a topic say, half-past ‘yeah, right. as if that won’t be a weird post.

** and it really is a compliment, relying as it does on the listener holding multiple skeins of colorful narrative while trying to live a normal life

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Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Lets start with something old! From, like, eleven years ago. (ikr? How can that even be? That quantity of FutureTime, when we all were in fifth grade would’ve manifested as: After Still Being Kids/ All the Way to Adulthood!)

New Readers? Not to worry! This will not be on the test. At least not in any form recognizable to you:

  • clarks (the Outsider) if for no other reason than the concept of Future is a drug that opium den’d thinkers of the 19th C might smile at and disregard as fantasy born of too much practicality
  • scotts (the Predator) calendar?!! “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” the future, to our scottian friends, are as rain-on-the-parade, sanctimonious buzz-kill as any one might say to a scott
  • rogers (the Herd Member) the Future is Valhalla/Nirvana/the Silver City to our Herd Member friends and serves only as, (imaginary) evidence of the the need to learn/imitate the Right Way to live

Alright! Original Content supplied. On with the RePrint!*

damn! lost our RePrint copy!!

(listening to an aside: “Let them Ask, Grasshopper”)

lol

You heard what the aged-culture reference suggested! Sorry!

hey! we do remember the music vid…sorta. lets use thin ‘un

* just checking to see if’n you scan and jump to the music vid**

** totally alright to do so. The thing about this Wakefield Doctrine is: it’s an alternative perspective. It demands little instruction or study, for those inclined (i.e. predominant worldview clarks or scotts and rogers with significant secondary clarklike aspects). Once central premise is acccepted, the details are self-evident. And way fun.

P.S. no need for secrecy. as is an essential quality, to better imply desirability of membership for a group or organization, special efforts to promote exclusivity is redundant in the worst possible way***

*** meaning the Wakefield Doctrine (and it’s benefits-of-understanding) cannot be bartered or otherwise leveraged (for profit or self-promotion). It’s available to all who need it.

 

 

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